Carving Eyes
Step-by-Step Instructions for Creating Realistic
Features and Expressions
by Jeff Phares
Softcover
215 x 280mm
76pp
Published by Fox Chapel Publishing Co. Inc., East Petersburg PA USA
R.R.P.$39.90
ISBN 1-56523-163-5
As reviewed in The Australian Woodworker Issue 120
Eyes have been called the windows of the soul since we can often discern in them meanings which their owners may not intend us to see.
We can recognise anger, repugnance, affection..., in fact, a variety of emotions, through slight alterations in the shape of the eyes we are observing.
Capturing these subtleties is one of the greatest challenges of carving portraits. Jeff Phares book Carving Eyes, is essentially a blueprint for those who want to start on the journey towards full accomplishment of this task.
In a steady stream of photographs accompanied by a modest amount of text, the author describes the carving of an average eye, a heavy lidded eye, a baggy eye, a winking eye and a sleeping eye. These are the basic eyes from which other eye shapes can then be developed.
The techniques are built one upon another as the woodcarving student progresses through the book.
Those who adopt the author's suggestion of using a study stick to practice each type of eye should soon master the basic shapes and be able to move on to even more difficult projects.
About the Author: Jeff Phares is world-renowned for his realistic carvings of Native Americans, frontiersmen and soldiers.
Photos: Colour
Contents
Introduction
Overview
Eye One: An Average Eye
Eye Two: A Heavy-Lidded Eye
Eye Three: A Baggy Eye
Eye Four: A Winking Eye
Eye Five: A Sleeping Eye
Diagrams